Lew Griffin

Lew Griffin works from the west of Ireland, where he came to knifemaking after watching Bob Kramer forge a blade on the Anthony Bourdain-produced Raw Craft series. A long-standing affinity for the blade was already there, and that single piece of film was enough to push him into the workshop in earnest. His background combines hands-on experience in the steel and mining industries with a formal education in art and design, a pairing that shows in work that is at once structurally serious and visually composed.

Performance is the organising idea of a Lew Griffin knife. Most of his blades are built around a high-performance geometry, predominantly in the form of an S grind, designed for clean release on dense produce and refined feedback at the edge. He pairs that geometry with steels chosen for their cutting performance, then dresses the work in materials that root it firmly in place: locally gathered shed deer antler and bog oak appear alongside more conventional stabilised woods. The combination gives each knife a quiet sense of provenance, with the landscape of the west of Ireland present in the handle as well as the maker's mark.

What sets the work apart is the resolution of all those elements into something coherent and unfussy. The fit and finish hold up to close inspection, the balance is considered for long prep, and the styling is restrained enough to let the geometry and materials carry the design. There is no decorative excess and no theatrical flourish, just well-made tools that read as confidently personal. For Modern Cooking, Lew sits among the makers we return to when asked for handmade knives that combine performance, character and the unmistakable feeling of place.